hawker of coke? on grandfathers birth certificate

[mcfc1923]

Hello everyone, at last i have just recrived my grandfathers
birth certificate, it says that his fathers occupation was a hawker of coke, is that correct or am i just reading it wrong?, what is a hawker of coke?.

Also if anyone can help me with info on my great great grandfather and his wife.

did he have any more children?

did he have any brothers or sisters

did any of his children or brothers or his wifes side of the family serve in the great war?

if anyone can point me in the right direction, would be eternally grateful.

info= my great grandfather was named James Warburton,
he was married to Isabella Warburton-- formerly Taylor.
their son(don't know if it was their only child) Thomas Amos Warburton was born 13th Feb, 1901 at 12 Chapel street central manchester.

many many thanks in advance

Jim

[jax]

Hi Jim,

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe a Hawker to be somebody who travels around selling stuff. 

I dont think he would have sold fizzy drink  , but maybe the coke referred to is some kind of cole? - again, I'm no expert - maybe somebody out there has other ideas?

jax

[Jane Masri]

He sold coal, probably on a horse drawn cart, I can remember them (just) on the streets of London.  Coke is converted coal. 'solid substance left when volatile parts have been distilled from coal'  ( Oxford dictionary)
Jane

[Hackstaple]

This is where us oldies come into our own. Coal was converted to "coke" by heating and steaming. This produced a lighter and somewhat less dirty fuel that burned without much smoke. Normally you collected it at the gas works if you had a van or a hand-cart. I suppose a coke hawker was an enterprising middleman seizing the gap - perhaps he had a donkey and cart.

[casalguidi]

1901 census 12 Chapel Streeet, St Andrew, Manchester

James WARBURTON age 28 coke hawker b.Manchester

Isabella wife 28 b.Manchester

Charles son 4 b.Manchester

Arthur 3 b.Manchester

Thomas A 2 months b.Manchester

Their neighbour was a salt hawker!

Census ref: RG13/3748 folio 5 page 2

You can check the Commonwealth War Grave site for those that died WW1 at:

http://www.cwgc.org

Or the medal rolls for those that served at http://www.pro.gov.uk though there is no identifying information on these cards ie. only name, regiment and number etc. - no age, birthplace etc.,

Hope this helps

Casalguidi

[mcfc1923]

Excellent!!!, many thanks Hackstaple, Jane Masri, jax, and
wow!! casalguidi, thanks to you i even know the occupation of his next door neighbour.

My grandfather's occupation was a coal carter, so i guess it fit's in with his fathers job.  So i take it that coke was used in some homes even before ww1?.
I always thought that coke first started being used in homes round about 1974, because coal smoke was bad for the enviroment. shows how much i know.

never knew my grandfather had 2 brothers that's for sure.
I suppose it's very possible that Charles and Arthur did join up at some stage, so will check cwgc and the pro as suggested by casalguidi and see what turns up, although not sure what direction to take if i draw a blank, maybe the absent voters list?, sure that i have heard it mentioned somewher before on the forum.
will keep you upto date on how i progress.

Big thanks to everyone for their help.

Jim 

[Hackstaple]

I don't know the time when coke became available domestically but my great--uncle was a building general foreman, later manager, for the Co-op Building Society - which actually built houses. Throughout the area in which he worked - West London, Harrow, Ruislip etc. all the houses had coke stoves and they were certainly building them from 1929 - perhaps earlier. He bought one of them himself in Ruislip Manor and that was built in 1931 and I remember that coke stove before the war.

[mcfc1923]

Thanks for the info Hackstaple, the reason i mentioned it was because i remember about 74-75 we used to have a coal fire, then the corporation as they do every thousand years or so decided to rip them out and replace them with coke fires, so it was a bag of coke every week instead of coal, to be honest at the time i remember that i prefered the coal fire.

thanks Hackstaple

jim

[Catswhiskers]

Coke was used in our house until 18 months ago so less of the before the first world war stuff I ain't that old.

I still is used in older areas of housing, particularly in old mining areas.   Coke's coal with the tar and gas  etc  out of it.

This site has  very good pictures of coking plants.

http://www.hfinster.de/StahlArt2/archive-en.html#archive

This is a picure of the Monkton Coking Plant near Royston.